


serendipitous

by stellalunar



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: (not exactly short?), 3racha are buddies v good buddies, Bakery, Cute, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, References to anxiety, Short & Sweet, Strangers to Lovers, hyunjin's in this for four seconds i'm sorry, just barely, minhos kinda cool
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-02
Updated: 2020-07-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:08:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25029028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stellalunar/pseuds/stellalunar
Summary: "Hi, how can I help you this evening?" Jisung's exchanging his practiced customer-service greeting almost robotically before his brain even catches up to what's going on.The guy's wearing a long coat and his ears are cherry red from the cold, but he's kind of cute. Well, more than that, Jisung just has an inferiority complex and immediately doesn't like the fact that he's handsome."I'm going to pre-apologize for my blatantness," the customer leans forward slightly and tucks his hands in the pockets of his coat, "but could you write 'fuck you' on a cake?"
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know
Comments: 12
Kudos: 743





	serendipitous

**Author's Note:**

> me: doesn't write in forever  
> also me: hello here take this pls

"I can't do this anymore."

"Tough luck, you've gotta," Chan swipes some flour from under his eyebrow and dusts it off of his fingers afterwards. 

"My arms are literally gonna fall off," Jisung moans. He looks distastefully at the stupid bowl of dry ingredients he has yet to mix. "Stupid holidays." 

"They won't, don't worry," Chan gives him a small smile as he transfers his completed bowl of batter into the muffin tins. 

Jisung scowls at the dry ingredients harder. "If they do you're completely liable." 

"Absolutely, hundred percent," Chan is definitely not listening anymore. He's busy shoving his tray of finished muffins in the oven and turning the timer dial. "Now bake." 

Jisung despises the holidays for exactly this reason. They're so rushed during the day that they don't get time to leave the front, so they end up having to bake overtime or during those blessed twenty minutes where the bakery is blissfully empty. If Jisung has to pastry-blend butter and sugar together one more time he might actually start screaming at the dry ingredients. 

He's quite ready to do that now, actually. 

But Chan looks like he actually cares about the reputation of the bakery, so Jisung groans very loudly and picks up the whisk. Stupid Seungmin had to go and get sick and leave poor him and Chan all alone to do the brunt of the holiday baking. In fact, if it hadn't been Seungmin they were talking about, Jisungw would've been convinced the whole 'I have influenza A' ordeal was an elaborate plan to get out of the holiday baking. 

But since Seungmin had genuinely seemed upset at not being able to write 'Merry Christmas!" in frosting calligraphy on top of a bunch of tree-shaped sugar cookies, Jisung will give him the benefit of the doubt. Even if his handwriting looks like chicken scratch compared to Seungmin's horribly straight manuscript. 

" _Bake_ , Jisung," Chan fixes a glare at him as he starts washing his bowl in the sink. "Last batch, then we can close up and you can go home."

Whatever Christmas carol they have on now is crooning about 'the most wonderful time of the year' as Jisung whisks the flour and baking powder together, and he has half a mind to go crush the CD player because it is not the most wonderful time of the year. Not for him, at least. He's getting blisters from holding the whisk as long as he does. The sides of the muffin tins are literally imprinted into his palms. 

And then, lo and behold, those stupid Christmas bells Chan had insisted on sticking over the doorway in a sudden burst of holiday cheer jingle, and Jisung perks up. 

"Oh, look, customer, I'll go get that! You'll finish up for me right hyung thanks!" 

Jisung whirls out of the kitchen before Chan can grab him by his apron strings. Jisung has been on the receiving end of that far too many times for him to count. 

It isn't like Jisung particularly likes helping customers (especially the pushy rude ones who go 'I need muffins with exactly four almonds per muffin and no more and I need them in the next hour' and then get mad when Jisung very politely lets them know that it isn't possible) because he sort of hates any sort of social interaction, but he's so desperate to get away from flour and salt that he's willing to do even that for a few minutes of baking-less bliss. 

Jisung's customer is already waiting by the register when he gets there, brushing flour off of his hands and hastily pushing his too-long bangs out of his eyes. 

"Hi, how can I help you this evening?" Jisung's exchanging his practiced customer-service greeting almost robotically before his brain even catches up to what's going on. 

The guy's wearing a long coat and his ears are cherry red from the cold, but he's kind of cute. Well, more than that, Jisung just has an inferiority complex and immediately doesn't like the fact that he's handsome. 

"I'm going to pre-apologize for my blatantness," the customer leans forward slightly and tucks his hands in the pockets of his coat, "but could you write 'fuck you' on a cake?"

Jisung's brain doesn't really register the request for an embarrassing fifteen seconds and then it does, and he immediately bursts out laughing. As crude as it may be, it's a breath of fresh air from the requests for 'happy holidays' or 'we wish you a merry christmas!' or 'santa clause is coming to town' they've gotten about fourteen thousand times today. 

"I'm sorry," Jisung swallows back the rest of his laughter and rubs the back of his neck awkwardly. "Could you repeat that?"

"Can you put the words 'fuck you' on a cake for me?" The guy repeats. 

Jisung looks for the telltale signs of an unfunny prank someone's trying to pull on him--he's had his fair share of unfavorable encounters with teenage pranksters who think they're hilarious. Which they're, unfortunately for them, not. Although the guy in front of him (A) doesn't look like a teenager and (B) has a completely serious expression on his face. 

"Uh. You know what, I'm technically allowed to put whatever you want on a cake for you so probably, but lemme just check with my boss real quick," Jisung says finally, jabbing a thumb towards Chan in the kitchen. Man, he cannot wait to see what Chan's gonna have to say on this. 

Jisung disappears into the kitchen and Chan looks up from Jisung's abandoned muffins. 

"Hyung," Jisung says. "There's a guy in the front who wants to know if we can write 'fuck you' on a cake for him." 

Chan chokes on thin air, nearly dropping the muffin tin. 

"He wants to put what now on a cake?" Chan asks in between coughs, and Jisung reaches over to thump him on the back. 

"Fuck you," Jisung repeats, and then flashes Chan his most angelic smile to make up for it. "You can't even scold my language because that's what Mr. Customer Guy said."

"I mean--" Chan looks around wildly for help, but unfortunately today there is no Seungmin to dig him out of his hole. Seungmin, the goody-two shoes who Jisung would actually think hates him if not for the genuine concern Seungmin had displayed when he'd passed out that one time at work. 

"I guess so?" Chan shrugs, biting his lip. "Why not, man." 

JIsung shrugs back and returns to the kitchen, folding his hands behind his back. He has a shit ton of questions for the man who wants to give a Fuck You Cake to somebody, but he doesn't really know if he should spitfire all of them at him. Instead, he puts on his customer service smile and returns to the register. 

"Yep, we can do that for you. What kind of cake, what size, and what date are you looking for?" Jisung pulls out the order pad and fumbles around for a pen. 

"Chocolate, the smallest one-layer cake you can make, and preferably by Thursday?"

Jisung glances at the calendar. It's Tuesday. And they have a shit ton of holiday baking to finish. And yet he's very intrigued by the Fuck You Cake, and so he agrees. Thursday it is. 

"Sure, no problem. Any filling or toppings?" 

"Nope. You don't even really have to frost it if you don't want to," the guy says. 

Jisung really tries not to let his face change as he writes it all down, but this is genuinely the most interesting thing that's happened to him all week. Still, nonetheless, he smiles back up at his customer and nods. 

"Sounds good. Can I have a name for the order?" 

"Minho," the guy says. "Lee Minho." 

Jisung tries not to sigh, but he's gotten orders from at least four other Minho's this week alone. Of course the 'fuck you cake' guy had to have the most common two names in Korean history. Still, Jisung's not sure he's going to be forgetting him anytime soon. 

"Okay, we'll have that ready for you by Thursday," Jisung finally puts down the notepad and looks up at Fuck You Cake Guy--Minho. 

"Thanks," Minho smiles for the first time since he'd entered the bakery. "It's extremely appreciated."

With that, he's gone, the jingling bells signaling his departure as the bakery doors close behind him. Jisung glances at the clock and hurries over to the door, flipping the 'Open' sign to 'Closed' before rushing back into the kitchen. Sure Minho had gone the slightest bit over closing time, but his order had been interesting enough that Jisung doesn't even mind all that much. 

"So we're now officially in charge of making a Fuck You Cake," Jisung informs Chan when he walks back into the kitchen. Chan's muffins are now in the oven and he's cleaning the baking counter. Jisung rushes to help him, picking up an unprecedentedly heavy bag of flour and trying not to show the toll the weight of the bag takes on him. Chan, though, the annoyingly concerned father he is, hurries over to help him. 

"So we are," Chan sighs as he pulls the bag into his own arms and tucks it onto the shelf. Jisung huffs, but he takes over wiping down the counters with alcohol anyways. "I really hope we don't get the reputation of 'that bakery that made a fuck you cake'."

"Why not?" Jisung grins cheekily when Chan turns to give him a deadpan look. "That's an awesome description." 

Chan flicks Jisung's forehead as he walks past. Very lightly, and he pats it soothingly right afterwards, but Jisung takes offense to the fact that he does it. 

"And I'm assuming you'll want to be taking charge of this particular cake?" 

"You got it, chief," Jisung tosses the paper towel in the trash can and puts the rubbing alcohol back in the cabinet. 

Chan mumbles something that sounds an awful lot like a regret of his life decisions, but Jisung very graciously decides to ignore it. Instead, he walks back home in the very chilly air without a jacket and wonders if he'll be next to accidentally contract Influenza A. 

Jisung does end up making the Fuck You Cake the next day. And he has a whole lot of fun going all out on the frosting and leaving poor Chan to do the holiday baking on his own--though, to his credit, he does run back and forth from the kitchen to the register to take orders for baked goods. None of which, he can confidently say, top Minho's order for a fuck you cake. He really is curious, though, as to why exactly Minho needs a cake to say fuck you to someone. 

If it were Jisung (and if Chan weren't around) he'd straight up say it and flip them off while he was at it. 

Jisung writes 'Fuck You' in very pretty, neat cursive using bright pink frosting and then outlines it in white, and then he adds edible pink glitter and pink sprinkles and pink frosting rings around the sides. He really does get carried away, enough that Chan puts him on a frosting time out and makes him go back to blending butter and sugar. 

"How have you not fixed the electric mixer yet?" Jisung wails as he's forced once again to whisk. "You fix everything!" 

Chan glances at said machine with a grimace. 

"I can't, Sungie, it's a goner. I ordered a new one, it should be here tomorrow." 

Tomorrow has never seemed so far away. Still, Jisung takes extra care to put the cake very carefully in the refrigerator despite his aching wrists and then goes back to whisking. 

And somehow sprains his wrist in the process. 

He still doesn't exactly know how, all he knows is that Chan sighs very heavily after being wildly concerned for about two seconds, and then he doesn't let Jisung go home and instead brings him back to his own apartment. 

"You're so breakable," Chan sighs as he wraps Jisung's wrist in an ace bandage. Jisung notes that Chan spends half his day sighing. That cannot be healthy. "My skinny little havoc creator." 

"I am not," Jisung protests. He doesn't know what he's protesting at considering both of those things are true, but he feels like fighting to hold up his honor. 

"Yes, you are," Changbin comes around and peeks into the bathroom, where Chan's got Jisung on the counter. "What are you even doing in our apartment?" 

Jisung sticks his tongue out very maturely while Chan explains that he doesn't trust Jisung to take care of himself at his own apartment. To which Changbin replies by nodding at Chan and wrinkling his nose and sticking his tongue back out at Jisung, also very maturely. 

"I made a Fuck You Cake today!" Jisung announces, bouncing into Chan and Changbin's shared bedroom. He's long since dropped insisting on taking the couch--he just crawls into bed with whoever seems more inviting. Today, it's Changbin, so he lifts up the sheets and crawls into the space between Changbin and the wall. 

"You did what?" Changbin moves over, making a face at Jisung but simultaneously allowing him to get comfortable. 

"He made a Fuck You Cake," Chan repeats, pulling the blankets over his head. "And he's very proud of it." 

"Yes I am," Jisung grins. He really is. "Someone came in and ordered it yesterday."

"Someone really ordered a Fuck You Cake?" Changbin looks mildly interested. "That's new. Usually your bakery stories put me to sleep." 

"Yep, Lee Minho or something," Jisung replies, hitting Changbin's shoulder for his second very unnecessary comment. "It made my life very interesting. Ow, you're pressing on my wrist, Binnie-hyung." 

As much as Changbin pretends to dislike Jisung's affection, he immediately jumps away and apologizes repeatedly, picking up Jisung's arm tenderly and setting it on his torso before moving back. 

"I know a Lee Minho," Changbin comments offhandedly. 

"Congrats, I know like, four," Jisung snarks back, curling up into a little ball and closing his eyes. He waits for the hit on his back but it never comes, so he turns towards Changbin to see why he isn't being attacked. It turns out Changbin's just glaring at his back, so he pats his shoulder and smiles before going back to his original position. 

Changbin starts saying something about the cake and Chan answers him, and it's right around then that Jisung actually starts realizing that he's tired. He falls asleep pressed against Changbin's side, and as much as the older boy will never admit it later he pulls Jisung closer and ruffles his hair before turning out the light. 

On Thursday, Jisung boxes Minho's cake and sticks it in the fridge again for safekeeping. 

But not before he proudly shows it to Chan and Seungmin, who's recovered enough to return to the bakery without being hazardous. Granted he's still shaky on his feet and a few shades paler than normal, but he's steady enough to help out with baking again. 

"I cannot believe you actually got a request for a fuck you cake," Seungmin shakes his head. He's baking sitting down, courtesy of Chan (he's been flitting around Seungmin worriedly all day because that's just Chan). "Oh God, we're gonna be known as the bakery that made a fuck you cake." 

"That's what I said," Chan hums, shaking his head as well. "Oh well. All publicity is good publicity. Most of the time." 

Jisung has some very controversial disagreements to that statement, but he keeps them to himself and instead goes back out to the register. Seungmin is good to help bake now, plus Jisung's on probation because of his wrist and now he doesn't have to worry about holiday baking. And sure enough, Minho comes through the door once again, this time with a bright red scarf around his neck. 

"Hello, Mr. Fuck You Cake," Jisung grins when Minho shows up to the counter. Minho smiles back, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Hello to you too." 

"One moment, please," Jisung dashes into the kitchen, grabs the very important cake from the fridge, and then returns to the register, completely ignoring the matching exasperation he receives from both Chan and Seungmin. 

Jisung turns to Minho and flips open the top of the cake box, revealing the utter delight inside. He watches carefully for an expression change and is mildly surprised when Minho's left eyebrow arches, and then a thin smile creeps onto his lips. 

"You read my mind, Mr. Baker Sir," Minho grins delightedly and something mischievous twinkles in his eyes. "It's perfect." 

And so Jisung tries to hide his proud smile as he tapes the box shut, enclosing the cake in all its pink glittery goodness. He does not entail just how much fun he'd had decorating the cake as he rings up the order. 

"It's 24,500 won," Jisung finally says once he's totaled up the cost. It's actually 27,000 won, but Jisung subtracts that much because of the particular order. Chan probably won't kill him, considering he needs Jisung around. 

Minho fumbles in his pockets for his wallet, nodding at Jisung's wrist as he does so. 

"I hope you didn't do that frosting my cake," he says good-naturedly. Jisung had almost forgotten about the bandage carefully wrapped around his wrist. It really doesn't even hurt all that much--it's more like a dull ache that only becomes apparent when he thinks about it. So, naturally, he's taken to not thinking about it. 

"Nope," Jisung replies cheerfully. "I over-whisked." 

Minho's lips turn up amusedly as that as he hands over 30,000 won and waves a hand when Jisung goes to retrieve change from the register. 

"Keep the change," Minho shakes his head. "Thank you very much," he picks up the cake box and flashes one last smile before disappearing into the wintry outdoors, and JIsung is left to take the next boring order for holiday cookies with custom name art. 

"So did he tell you why exactly he needed a Fuck You Cake?" Chan asks once Jisung closes up the bakery for the day and retreats to the kitchen to aid in the cleanup. 

"Unfortunately, I was not entrusted with the allocated elements of the requisition," Jisung replies as he shoves some expired powdered sugar into the trashcan. 

Seungmin pulls an unimpressed face at his choice of words. 

"You could've just said no," Chan mutters. "How's your wrist?" 

"Throbbing," Jisung responds easily. 

Chan turns around in concern, already reaching for him instinctively. "Really?" 

Jisung darts out of reach, and Seungmin whirls him towards Chan like the traitor he is. The second Chan starts to unpin the bandage to inspect his wrist Jisung regrets telling him that it's throbbing. He hadn't exactly lied, but now Chan won't let him out of sight. 

"You're stupid," Seungmin comments from his stool. 

"And you're disabled, so shut the f--abrosaurus up," Jisung takes a sharp turn when he sees Chan starting to glare at him. Which doesn't even make sense considering he'd just allowed Jisung to make a Fuck You Cake, but perhaps that had been special swearword allowance. 

Seungmin's expression does not change in the slightest. 

"If it was anyone else I'd be surprised that you knew a dinosaur that starts with the letter F," he relents, "but because it's you I'm not." 

Seungmin's tone indicates that it isn't meant to be a compliment, but Jisung takes it as one anyways. His bank of knowledge will come in useful someday and then everyone will regret being mean to him about his random trivia facts. 

Chan finally lets go of Jisung's wrist and he darts away, scowling to himself. 

"Sungie, are you coming home with either of us?" Chan asks a few minutes later. 

Jisung considers, then shakes his head. 

"I need to clean and my laptop is dead," Jisung says. "Also all my assignments are on my dead laptop." 

"Do you even have food?" 

The answer to that question truthfully is probably not, but Jisung very intelligently decides to lie and nods enthusiastically. It's not exactly a lie--Jisung's sure there's some dried fruit or unspoiled eggs or something somewhere. He hasn't had the time nor the energy to go grocery shopping lately. 

"Also, Sung," Seungmin says, and Jisung immediately braces himself because Seungmin is using that tone of voice that sounds like he actually cares about Jisung. Whenever he does that it's usually because he's worried, and Jisung really doesn't like being treated like he's breakable. "Your meds were running out the last time I saw you." 

Jisung winces. He'd taken the last pill this morning. He probably should've ordered more from the pharmacy. 

"Uh, yeah," Jisung rubs the back of his neck sheepishly and looks away. "Oops."

"No, it's okay, don't worry, I have an extra bottle of yours at our apartment," Chan cuts in quickly. "I can drop it off for you." 

Seungmin nods quickly. "I've got one too, just in case." 

"Thanks," Jisung sighs. He won't say it out loud, but he's ultimately relieved. He's horrendously forgetful and while that usually doesn't match well with his need for medication, he's thankful that people actually keep track of it for him. Who knows where he'd be if he was left to fend for himself. 

Truthfully, Jisung doesn't really like spending much time at his apartment ever since he'd been forced to move out of Felix's place. Well, he technically hadn't been forced, considering Felix had nearly begged him to stay, but the rent of the particular complex had skyrocketed to a point where Jisung couldn't pay even with Felix taking half of it. Felix, the sweet soul, had offered to pay three quarters so Jisung wouldn't have to move out, but Jisung wasn't about to put a burden like that on somebody. 

Now his apartment is stale and empty when he gets back, and more often than not Jisung just ends up being lonely in his bedroom. It's an affordable rent, less than half the rent he'd paid with Felix, but it doesn't make the lonesomeness any more appealing. 

Chan does end up dropping off the medication and also a bag of food (which Jisung complains at, but still eats all of because he's ravenous). Seungmin also calls to make sure that he got his meds and that he's eaten proper food. Jisung sends him pictures of both so he'll shut up and leave him alone. 

Hyunjin accompanies Seungmin to the bakery the next day, and Jisung, who is in zero mood for any sort of social interaction, takes his opportunity to start braiding Hyunjin's very long hair. Hyunjin has no oppositions to the matter, he very obediently sits in front of Jisung and lets him do whatever he wants. Jisung is on his fourth braid when Chan comes back from the register. 

"Sungie, do you want to take customers today?"

"No," Jisung doesn't look up from Hyunjin's hair. He very much does not want to take customers today. Usually he doesn't really mind, but he doesn't feel like smiling overly brightly at a bunch of middle-aged ahjummas who comment on his cheeks and ask him if he's even old enough to be working there. 

Chan doesn't ask anything else, but Jisung can almost hear the 'are you okay' in his head that Chan is valiantly trying to hold back. 

Seungmin glares at him. "Then come make pies with me and stop--hey that actually looks pretty good--that's beyond the point--just come make pies with me!" 

Hyunjin does look mildly disappointed when Jisung gets up, but Chan tosses him a tin of cookies and he's too busy stuffing his face to protest. 

Chan goes back out to the front and Jisung starts on the very daunting task of pie-making with Seungmin, who eventually stops focusing on his own pie to point out everything Jisung is doing wrong on his. He's actually in the middle of telling Jisung he's painting the butter on the top wrong when Chan bustles back in, looking evidently confused. 

"Sung, there's--um, someone wants you." 

Jisung's brain short-circuits. "Someone wants.. _me_?" 

" _Really_?" Seungmin sounds even more disbelieving, so Jisung slaps his shoulder. 

"Yep," Chan nods. 

Jisung wipes butter from his fingers onto a paper towel and sticks his tongue out at Seungmin before he follows Chan into the front. So much for no social interaction--though he is curious as to who on earth wants him. If it's an ahjumma who found him charming and only wants to pinch his cheeks and go 'ooh, what an adorable boy!' Jisung might actually scream in her face. 

It turns out it's not an ahjumma. 

It's Minho. 

"Hello, Mr. Baker Sir," Minho waves at him, and Chan stifles a laugh into his shoulder, towelling some plates dry very aggressively. 

"Hello, Mr. Fuck You Cake," Jisung grasps the same thread Minho seems to be waiting for him to pick up. "Are you here to curse someone else out via baked good?" 

"Ah, no, not today," Minho smiles at him. "Maybe next time. I'm here to say thanks." 

Jisung raises his eyebrows in surprise. He's not sure what exactly what he'd been expecting, but it definitely wasn't that. 

"What for?" 

"For helping me get revenge," Minho smiles devilishly. "Well, actually, I also came to get a cookie. But I figured I'd throw that in if you were working today." 

"Well, then, you're very welcome, Minho-ssi," Jisung smiles back at him. "Enjoy your cookie." 

Jisung turns on his heel and stalks back into the kitchen. Seungmin is immediately flying at him with a forkful of something, shoving it in his mouth before he even gets a chance to register what's going on. 

And it's disgusting, whatever it is. It tastes mostly like cinnamon and chili peppers blended together with salt, so Jisung has a hard time actually getting it down his throat. 

"Holy shit, Seungmin, it's disgusting," Jisung chokes out once he can finally talk again. He runs his tongue along the back of his teeth to rid his mouth of the lingering taste. "What _is_ that?" 

"See, I told you," Seungmin turns triumphantly to Hyunjin, who pouts. "It's _that_ bad."

"I never said baking was my specialty," Hyunjin shrugs eventually. "I only wanted you to try it, anyways." 

"Will someone please enlighten me on what poison I just swallowed?" 

"Hyunjin baked chili brownies," Seungmin says matter-of-factly. 

Jisung decides that he doesn't have the will to further question Hyunjin's decisions and goes back to rolling out pie dough. 

"Someone has a crush on Jisungie!" Chan sings a few moments later when he skips into the backroom. "Also Hyunjin, if you're gonna just let yourself back here go help take customers." 

"Will you pay me?" Hyunjin brightens a little bit, and Chan shakes his head in exasperation. 

"I'll pay you 1000 won per customer you charm into buying something," he relents.

That gets Hyunjin up and going faster than Jisung's seen him move all morning. It's once he's gone that Seungmin and Jisung remember the first part of the sentence.

"Someone has a crush on Jisung?" Seungmin sounds like he doesn't believe it in the slightest.

Jisung is just utterly confused. 

"Jisungie, the Fuck You Cake guy likes you," Chan turns to Jisung.

It takes him another minute to understand that Chan is speaking about Minho. Minho, who Jisung has talked too exactly three times, all of which were on business matters and business matters only. So it really isn't his fault when he lets out a disbelieving 'pfft' at Chan's exclamation and rolls his eyes. 

"Honestly, Channie-hyung, I thought you were being serious for a second," Jisung sighs, flopping down on one of the stools. He really had, for a quick second there. He won't be surprised if Hyunjin has a list of 54 potential significant others by the time he waltzes back in here. He seems to have a knack for making people fall in love with him very quickly. 

No wonder Chan had put him on customer duty. He doesn't even work here. 

"I _am_ ," Chan insists, cutting slits in the pie that Jisung's just covered. "He made such heart eyes at you when he called you out today. And he only called you out to say thank you. Didn't he already do that last time?" 

Come to think of it, Jisung had found that a little bit weird. Nonetheless, it leads to no such assumptions. 

"Maybe he's just a really polite person."

"That's not a good explanation," Seungmin cuts in. "He asked for a fuck you cake."

"Why on earth would he like me?" Jisung sighs again, pulling a strand of hair in front of his eyes. Somehow it's coated in flour--he doesn't know how that happened, but he focuses on brushing it out and then wondering how much more of his hair is dusted in flour. 

"You're cute," Chan shrugs, glancing at him over his shoulder.

Seungmin squints at him and looks him up and down scrutinizingly. 

"Objectively," he agrees reluctantly. "There _is_ some level of confusing attraction about you." 

It's almost funny how serious Chan is being about the whole thing. Again, he has literally spoken to Minho three times. He doesn't even think Minho knows his _name_. And in his two and a half years of working here, he has not managed to attract one person. Well, except that giggly fourteen-year-old girl who he'd gotten so fed up with that he'd just yelled that he was highly homosexual at her before stalking out of the bakery. 

Sure he felt guilty about it for ages afterwards, but she never came back. 

On top of that, the chances that Minho is also attracted to men are not too high. Jisung tends to have bad luck with falling in love with straight guys. 

"Aw, Seungminnie, if you wanted to date me you could've just said," Jisung bats his eyelashes at a disgusted Seungmin, who holds up a stick of butter threateningly. 

"In your dreams," Seungmin mutters. 

"Sounds like it's in _your_ dreams," Jisung replies cheerfully, and this time the stick of butter is actually lobbed at him. Then Seungmin gets smacked by Chan for wasting butter, and Jisung just grins smugly at him before returning the stick of butter to the fridge. 

"Boys, _behave_ ," Chan exhales tiredly. "No fighting. There is too much food here for you all to be fighting. The holidays may be over technically, but New Year's is next week and we need everything we can make." 

"Nah, everyone goes to the fried chicken places on New Year's," Jisung says moodily, leaning his head on a fist. "Our sales are only dropping from here on out." 

"Very positive thinking," Chan glares at him. 

And just like that, Minho drops out of the topic of conversation. On the other hand, though, Jisung actually thinks about it when he's at home in his lonely, dusty, sad apartment underneath his comforter. 

Does he like _Minho_? Is it working that way around? Sure, Minho is attractive, but Jisung's met many attractive people. Plus he has no good way to know literally anything about Minho's personality, so there really isn't much else to like. Nope, no crushing happening. Not on either end. 

And yet still, even after that reassurance, Jisung is unable to fall asleep. Maybe it's because of the crushing loneliness he's experiencing. Or because his apartment is so eerily quiet that he can hear water dripping from the leaky faucet one floor up. Or because Jisung hates being sad and alone. 

Whatever the reason, Jisung makes the firm decision to get up, drape his comforter over his shoulders like a cape, slip his feet into his sneakers, and make the very short journey to Chan and Changbin's apartment. Seungmin lives too far away for Jisung to walk in the middle of the night, and he's tired. 

He's nearly to the apartment when he sees a shadow looming over him from the front and nearly trips on his blanket, jumping ten feet in the air. 

"Oh, sorry, sorry--I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you--" 

Jisung looks up once he's calmed down enough to not nearly pee himself in fear and finds Minho staring back at him. 

"You're--from the bakery, right?" Minho asks, tilting his head. 

Jisung flushes bright red when he realizes how horrifying he must look at the moment, but he's too late now. 

"Uh, yeah, hi," Jisung's face is so hot he can actually feel heat waves radiating off of him. 

"What are you...doing, exactly?"

Jisung does realize how weird he must currently look, huddled under his comforter in the middle of the sidewalk at 1 in the morning. But then again, Minho is also out at one in the morning--granted he's properly dressed and not draped in a comforter-cape, but Jisung will take what he can get. 

"Going to Chan-hyung's apartment," Jisung replies tiredly. In his sleep-muddled brain it doesn't really occur to him that Minho has no idea who Chan is, and he'll only realize that later, but Minho is kind enough not to ask any further. 

"Oh. Okay," Minho nods, like it's a very normal thing to be doing. "Also, just..by the way, I don't think I ever got your name?" 

Should Jisung be wary that a person he barely knows wants his name? Probably a little bit, but it's too late for him to really care.Plus he already knows Minho's name, so what harm could it be?

"Jisung," Jisung pauses to yawn, brushing some of his undoubtedly chaotic hair out of his eyes. "My name is Jisung." 

"Well. You look tired, so I'll just...head on," Minho smiles at him. He's way too awake for this time of night. "But it was nice seeing you, Jisung." 

Yeah, sure, totally. Absolutely. Anything if he can just head on to Chan's apartment and go to sleep in a bed with someone else in an apartment that's actually alive. In the morning Jisung has a feeling he'll regret not doing this differently, but right now he couldn't care less as he walks to Chan's apartment complex and heads into the lobby. Once he actually gets to Chan's floor he fumbles for the key he always keeps on his bracelet because he's the most forgetful person possible and lets himself in. 

For some reason, the lights are still on in the living room when Jisung gets there, and Chan is sitting on the couch with his computer in his lap.

"Sungie?" 

"'M gonna sleep with Binnie-hyung," Jisung slurs, barely acknowledging Chan as he walks past. He's done this enough times for them not to jump up in worry whenever he shows up in the middle of the night. 

"Good night, then, Jisungie," Chan waves at him, and Jisung nods before he walks into the bedroom, drops his comforter on the chair, and locates the lump in Changbin's bed. He lifts up the blanket and buries his way in carefully, accidentally rousing Changbin in the process. 

"Whasgoinon..?" 

Changbin shifts slightly and then seems to realize that there is now another person in bed with him. He freezes, and then Jisung feels him pick up a strand of his hair before relaxing again. 

"Oh. Good night." 

Jisung falls asleep before Changbin can even start snoring again. 

He wakes up, a bit creepily, to Chan kneeling by the bed next to him with a worried expression on his face. 

"Sung, baby," he says softly, pushing some hair out of Jisung's face. 

It isn't until he's a bit more awake that he realizes everything feels a bit heavier than it should, especially his head, and that the room feels feverishly hot. 

"You're burning up," Chan presses a cool hand to his forehead and his mouth twists a bit unhappily. 

He is? That doesn't make any sense. He definitely hadn't felt sick last night. Beside him he can feel Changbin moving around, and then there's an arm pulling him into a too-warm embrace. 

"Hot," Jisung mumbles, struggling to kick the comforter off. Chan helps him, pulling back the sheets and moving him into a sitting position. 

"Keep him up for a second," Jisung hears Chan say. "I'm gonna see what's in the med cabinet." 

He can feel his shirt sticking to his skin and he peels it away from his chest with a grimace. It hadn't been this hot when he'd left last night, definitely not enough for him to sweat through his clothes. He doesn't know how on earth everything had changed so much overnight. 

"Okay, Sungie, can you take these for me?" Chan's palm floats in front of his face, two vividly orange pills in his hand. 

He doesn't really love the idea of taking pills but Chan sounds worried and that's the only reason he shoves them down his throat and hacks away until they're in his system. Good riddance. 

The rest of Chan and Changbin's conversation is jumbled nonsense, so Jisung shuts his eyes again and slides down until he's lying down. He spends nearly the entire day in a fitful sleep--he's awoken by Changbin twice to be fed some sort of rice porridge and to take meds again, and then he falls back asleep. Chan gets back to the apartment at some point later during the night and Jisung can hear his name in the conversation they're having, but frankly he doesn't have the energy to figure out what they're talking about. 

The next time he actually properly wakes up is around 8 the next morning. He'd slept for nearly 24 hours straight. 

"Morning, sunshine," Chan is standing over him again, a significantly less number of wrinkles between his eyebrows this time. "How are you feeling?" 

Somehow he's still tired. Is that even possible? He hasn't stood up since yesterday. Or maybe he has, yesterday is kind of a blur and he doesn't really remember much other than the color orange, for some strange reason.

"Fine," Jisung answers, and he's pleased to find that his voice actually comes out properly. Also, there's no feverish haze that clouds his head when he sits up, so frankly he doesn't really know what happened yesterday. 

"That's a relief," Chan shakes his head. "Man, you really scared me, Jisung. Please refrain from ever doing that again." 

"I didn't do it on purpose," Jisung grumbles. "I didn't even know I was sick."

"That's cause you weren't," Changbin slinks into the bedroom and offers Jisung a small smile. His hair is still ruffled and he's eating something out of a bowl. 

"What?" Jisung blinks in confusion. 

"Sungie, have you taken your meds since the night Seungmin asked you about them?" Chan asks gently, sitting down on the edge of the bed. Jisung feels the mattress dip a bit by his legs as he comes to the sudden realization that he'd completely forgotten to take his stupid anxiety medication for the past--he doesn't even remember how many days. 

"Oh-- _oh_ , shit," Jisung scrubs his hands down his face in frustration. "I was so busy that I kind of forgot those even existed." 

"Yeah, we figured," Changbin comes over and shoves a spoonful of whatever he's eating in Jisung's mouth. It's sweet and it tastes almost coconutty--oatmeal, probably. 

"You must have burned out," Chan bites his lip. "We only figured it out when Binnie realized you hadn't cleared your reminders for the past few days."

"Oh," Jisung says again, his voice a lot smaller this time. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, honest--" 

"We know, Sungie, don't worry," Chan ruffles his hair and gives him a crooked smile. "You didn't mean it. But we need to find a way for you to remember. I know you want to come off of them soon, but for now it isn't safe for you to yet." 

Jisung nods defeatedly. He knows Chan believes him, but he doesn't blame Chan for thinking that he might've just wanted to quit. He honestly really didn't mean to, it's just that his brain had been scattered so many places that his meds had been the last thing on his mind. Which is probably not a good habit for him, but it's what had happened. Still he owes a major apology to Chan and Changbin both for worrying them to no end. 

"I'm really sorry," Jisung repeats quietly. 

"None of that," Chan shakes his head. "You did nothing wrong. It was just a mistake, it happens to everyone. It only means that we've got to help you remember, because it's important that you get better." 

Boy, does Jisung get that. He doesn't think he'll be forgetting to take his medication for a long time from now. He's learned his lesson pretty well. 

"Can I come to the bakery today?" Jisung is prepared for a hard no. He remembers his parents basically keeping him locked up in his room when he'd first been diagnosed with anxiety. They hadn't been ready to let the world know their son was tainted. And he's well aware that Chan is nothing like them, but old habits stick. 

"Of course, why wouldn't you? You're feeling better, aren't you?" Chan gives him a strange look. 

Jisung decides to leave his traumatic childhood out of the equation and shakes his head, offering Chan a small smile. 

"Yep." 

"I'm gonna leave now, because Seungminnie's there by himself right now. He was super worried when we told him what happened." 

"Yeah, okay," Jisung nods at Chan and shuffles into the bathroom to shower and change. Changbin force-feeds him more oatmeal when he gets out before finally letting him out to the bakery. 

He's wearing one of Chan's way-too-large on him sweatshirts, meaning he's had to fold the sleeves up four times so they fit his sadly small arms and the shoulder seams come halfway down his elbows. Stupid Chan and his muscles. The bakery is mildly busy when Jisung gets there, so he avoids the crowd of people standing over the glass shelves and retreats into the kitchen.

Both Seungmin and Hyunjin are there--Hyunjin might as well get a job here if he's going to spend all his time here anyways. Jisung laughs when he realizes Hyunjin had washed his hair with the braids still in it, so now they're kind of tangled in with the rest of his hair. They're still visible, though. 

"Oh, Jisung, you're alive," Seungmin smiles warmly at him from the counter. 

That is a very weird occurrence. Jisung is so used to the sinister smirk that he almost doubles back at the genuine smile he gets. 

"Stop doing that with your mouth, it's weird," Jisung pulls a face at Seungmin. 

"Yeah, it felt weird," Seungmin agrees with him quickly. "You're alright, though?" 

Jisung nods at him, half-smiling. "Good as new." 

"In that case, let me tell you about all the cool awesome amazing stuff that happened yesterday without you," Seungmin says, working quickly with some dough. Jisung takes note of how he doesn't bark at him to start baking, which means he's definitely noticed how Jisung's hands still shake slightly when he moves. 

But he cares enough to not point it out, which Jisung highly appreciates. 

Besides, it's not like Chan allows him to bake anyways. At some point he and Seungmin switch out and Seungmin takes over the register, so Chan very not subtly checks Jisung for a temperature before he washes his hands and starts working again. At this point it feels like Jisung spends more of his time at the bakery sitting around instead of actually doing any work. 

When he zones out for the nth time that day, Chan comes over and pats his shoulder lightly. 

"Everything okay?" 

"Yep," Jisung answers quickly, smiling brightly at Chan. 

"Wanna go sit out in one of the booths? I think the kitchen might be making you go crazy." 

Jisung is about to protest when he rethinks and decides that it might not be such a bad idea. The kitchen is kind of making him go crazy. 

"Yeah, okay," Jisung sighs heavily, standing up from the chair. "Honestly I don't even know why you still pay me around here." 

"Neither do I, you're a brat," Chan replies easily, patting his back with a spatula and then grimacing and going to wash it off. 

Jisung exhales heavily as he makes his way out to one of the empty booths in the bakery. There are a few customers occupying booths and tables here and there, so Jisung picks the empty one in the corner and slides in, pillowing his head on his arms and vaguely listening to whatever holiday music is playing today. 

"Hello!"

Jisung startles, then looks up to find Minho inviting himself into the seat across from him. 

"Are you feeling better?" 

He's slightly confused at the question. As far as he knows, Minho shouldn't have known anything about his episode yesterday. 

"I--yeah, thanks," Jisung settles for saying. Maybe he shouldn't question it.

"Cool. I came by yesterday but the other guy who works here said you were pretty sick." 

"You..asked for me?" Jisung is slightly confused. Maybe he shouldn't be considering Minho's done it before, but it still catches him off guard.

Minho nods quickly, a small smile taking place on his lips. 

"I wanted to tell you about the Fuck You Cake," he says, grinning. 

Actually, Jisung has been wildly curious about that. Plus it makes sense that he'd want to tell the person who made the cake about it. So it totally checks out as to why Minho was looking for him. 

"Oh, do explain," Jisung perks up, brightening. "I've already come up with around fifteen imaginary scenarios, but I'm pretty stoked to finally be hearing the real one." 

Minho laughs, throwing his head back in amusement. Jisung's brain flits to an inappropriate place and then flits back immediately, and he's disgusted that he's even thinking that about Minho. 

"So originally I wanted to do a Fuck You card, right? But then I thought that it would be too obvious, and way too basic of a way to flip off your parents." 

"Parents?" Jisung can very confidently say he hadn't expected that scenario. Looks like he isn't the only one with daddy issues. And mommy issues. The only one with parental unit issues. 

"Yep," Minho pops the 'P' at the end of the word and grins. "See, my parents call me over to their house every year to have their annual 'Minho, when are you gonna get a real job so we can stop lying to everyone by telling them you're in med school? Dance is just a hobby and we're fine with that, but you'll never have a career in it so stop embarrassing us.' conversation with me."

Jisung grimaces. He has more than enough experience in that department. 

"Huh, funny. My parents phone me once a year to have the annual 'Jisung, we couldn't help but notice that your bills for that shrink of yours get higher every year. Why on earth are you paying for some crazy fellow to tell you you're crazy too?' conversation."

Minho grins before holding out a hand for a high-five. 

"Fuck our parents buddies?"

Jisung shakes his head in amusement before returning the high-five. "Fuck our parents buddies." 

"So anyways, this year I thought I'd officially you know, break up with my parents. But I had to do it with a bang, and a card just didn't seem right for the occasion. So I thought flowers next. But flowers that mean fuck you don't really have the same impact because they don't exactly scream it, you know? So my final idea was a fuck you cake."

Jisung grins. "I can't imagine that went well." 

Minho grins too. "Nope. I tossed that shit on their counter, waited for them to open it, and then ran for my fucking life. I swear to God my dad's face went scarlet and I actually thought my mom was gonna get steam out of her ears." 

"You know what, I suddenly feel less guilty about the amount of pink glitter I dumped on it," Jisung laughs. 

"It was absolutely perfect," Minho says. "I really hope they ate it. That would give me so much closure. Also, by the way, you have a really nice laugh."

Jisung is also not expecting that very last part, so he feels his cheeks heat up again and he kind of sputters for a couple of seconds before looking away quickly. 

"Cute," Minho's still smiling at him. "I also have one more question for you." 

Jisung just kind of makes a noise of affirmation, because words are kind of betraying him at the moment. 

"I think you're cute and I wanted to know if you'd let me take you on a date on Friday." 

And Jisung malfunctions, stops working completely for a hot second. Chan was right, it turns out. Very smugly right. That's only kind of annoying. But the thing his brain should be focusing on is that an attractive man just asked him out, and okay maybe that made Jisung really happy because perhaps he's kind of taken a liking to Minho too. 

"That was unexpected," Jisung squeaks in a very masculine way. 

"Really? I thought I'd made my interest quite obvious," Minho brushes some hair out of his face. "That's embarrassing." 

Jisung doesn't point out that apparently other people had noticed the obviousness and he was just too preoccupied. 

"I, um--well, I'm gonna have to tell you that I sort of...come with a warning label," Jisung says finally, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm sort of in a lot of pieces that aren't always the most cooperative, so if you don't want to deal with that I'm giving you an out right now." 

Minho's expression doesn't change in the slightest.

"Jisung, your issues don't make you any less attractive. If anything, I'd say I have a thing for crazy kids," Minho winks cheekily, and Jisung reaches forward to slap his arm in retaliation. 

"I'm serious, though. I don't care how dumb you think it is. My offer isn't changing." 

Jisung, for the first time, smiles genuinely at him as he twists his fingers together nervously. 

"Then I'd love to go on a date with you on Friday." 

And if anything, if it ends up not working out, the beaming smile Minho gives him in response is enough to make him stand strong by his words. 

**Author's Note:**

> "I told you so, Jisung." 
> 
> "Chan-hyung, if you don't shut the f--abrosaurus up--"


End file.
